On Tuesday, I had the honor of helping surprise my doctoral advisor, John Marszalek, with news that several of his former graduate students had produced a festschrift. A group of approximately thirty family, friends, former students, and colleagues gathered in Starkville to unveil a new book, entitled Of Times and Race: Essays Inspired by John … Continue reading A Festschrift for John Marszalek
The Real Thanksgiving
From Kevin Levin's blog, enjoy Dick Morris' wacky take on the link between the Pilgrims and the American Civil War. If that doesn't put you in the mood for turkey, maybe reading about the Pilgrims' personal hygiene will. You're welcome, and have a good Thanksgiving.
Andrew Jackson: Patriot Slaveholder
Sometimes, there are articles that get lost in the shuffle. They don't appear in proprietary databases such as JSTOR or America: History and Life, so no one discovers them until years later. I don't want this to happen to Aaron Crawford's new article in the Journal of East Tennessee History (Vol. 82--2010) on the symbolic … Continue reading Andrew Jackson: Patriot Slaveholder
Interested in a Rare Civil War Primary Source?
One of my non-history colleagues here at Cumberland loaned me a book filled with family letters from the Civil War. The writer of the letters was Justus Daniel Strait of Pennsylvania. Strait wrote the letters to his parents while he served in the Union Army's Company I, 45th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 9th Division. Strait … Continue reading Interested in a Rare Civil War Primary Source?
More on Historians and Online Sources
The recent H-SHEAR exchange about online sources, which I blogged about previously, has prompted other related discussions. On H-CivWar, a review of Edward Sebesta and James Loewen's The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader prompted Peter Knupfer, H-Net guru extraordinaire, to question the lack of online resources in document readers. His post elicited a response from Sebesta … Continue reading More on Historians and Online Sources
The Civil War Sesquicentennial
There are plenty of bloggers discussing the Civil War sesquicentennial, and I'm sure the number will increase over the next four years. Except for occasional forays, I choose to stay away from the topic here. I would be remiss, however, if I did not offer some thoughts on my own interest in the period. My childhood experiences … Continue reading The Civil War Sesquicentennial
Exhibit A: Why Studying History Is Important
Ed. note: In yesterday's blog post, Michael Lynch has reaction to the online comments about my TSLA opinion piece. I usually ignore the anonymous online comments left on websites, but Monday's Tennessean opinion piece on slavery at The Hermitage offers an illustration of why reading and studying history is so important. Sample comments (as originally … Continue reading Exhibit A: Why Studying History Is Important
My Journey to Studying History
I am teaching our department's historical methods course this semester. One of the questions that I asked the students was why they chose to study history. Answers ranged from "I chose it by default" to "I've always loved reading and writing, so history was a natural fit." I shared with them my reason for majoring in … Continue reading My Journey to Studying History
Goodbye, Colonel Reb
The controversy over the Ole Miss mascot, Colonel Reb, appears to winding down. The university has selected five mascots from which Colonel Reb's replacement will be chosen: "a bear, a lion, a horse, a land shark (a reference to the team’s tenacious defensive line) and Hotty and Toddy (derived from the name of the school cheer)." … Continue reading Goodbye, Colonel Reb
Early Republic Photos
The National Archives recently made available 6,000 digitized images online for free. They come from the Mathew Brady Photographs of Civil War-Era Personalities and Scenes (National Archives's Local Identifier 111-B) series. If you aren't familiar with Brady, Mathew Brady (1823-1896) was one of the most prolific photographers of the nineteenth century, creating a visual documentation of the Civil War … Continue reading Early Republic Photos
Jacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics 